In the known vending machines, a variety of different product storage and release mechanisms are provided for product delivery operations. An ultimate aim of any party installing a vending machine is to provide such a machine which is selectively adjustable to vend either cans or glass bottles, e.g., in a maximum of different selections for a given machine size while serving to also vend a minimum percentage of a particular selected product to meet certain anticipated demands. A machine will desirably be adjustable for both single and double column arrangements which, depending on the size bottle or can, such columns will be single, double or even triple depth stack arrangements. With maximum machine adjustability, a user of a vending machine then may load the machine to provide a particular product of reduced consumer demand in a single column or provide a greater selection of different flavors in either single or double columns, while at the same time, maximizing use of the machine to include a larger percentage of machine capacity to selected flavors of high demand.
Among known prior art machines, Ural U.S. Pat. No. 3,463,355, Baxendale U.S. Pat. No. 3,799,393 and Payne U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,832 disclose typical vending apparatus for selective product storage and release. These machines provide refrigerated chests having coin-actuated release mechanisms for dispensing a single container, such as a can or glass bottle, one at a time. As shown in the referenced patents, such chests employ a dispensing apparatus having two adjacent front-to-back staggered stacks of containers with corresponding containers in the respective adjacent stacks being substantially axially aligned relative to one another.
However, because of a particular type dispensing mechanism peculiar to a given vending machine, known vending machines are frequently limited to a double column arrangement or a single column, double depth stack arrangement, for example, or other such limitations which do not meet certain field requirements for machine capacity, versatility and adjustment wherein either single or double columns and either single or multiple stack depth arrangements may be programmed by an operator for maximum machine versatility and flexibility in the flavor section.
Moreover, in known vending machines, when it is desired to vary a product delivery or to effect a so-called field conversion or changeover, the complexity of known vending release mechanisms introduces excessive operator time and skill requirements and downtime on the part of the machine in addition to possibly requiring replacement of a host of different parts which are necessary to be substituted to change a given product delivery, for example, to a different size container. It is not unknown, e.g., to require different dispensing mechanisms within a given machine which includes different drive motors and actuating components. When a change is desired to convert a single column or a double column to a different stack depth arrangement, prior art machines may require actual substitution of certain drive and/or actuating components. The devices utilized for timing the release of such containers are likewise frequently of a type requiring a skilled operator and necessitating manual disassembly and subsequent re-assembly of the vending apparatus or its major components to effect changeover.